Floor covering



July 14, 1970 w. ALLMAN 3,520,161

FLOOR COVERING Filed July 31, 196' INVENTOR. C YRIL J. .ALLMAN UnitedStates Patent O ,MICO

3,520,761 FLOOR COVERING Cyril Joseph Allman, Surrey, England, assignorto BTR Industries Limited, London, England, a British com- Filed July31, 1967, Ser. No. 657,396 Claims priority, application Great Britain,Aug. 4, 1966, 35,000/ 66 Int. Cl. B32!) 1/ 04 US. Cl. 16144 4 ClaimsABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Floor covering comprising an elongated sheetof elastomeric material having a ridge extending along one margin and arib with a recess in the lower surface extending along the oppositemargin, the recess and ridge being of complementary shape and dimensionso that sheets of like nature can be united transversely by interfittingthe marginal ribs and ridges.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Floor coverings formed of elastomericmaterial, for example, synthetic plastic such as plasticized polyvinylchloride, are frequently produced in the form of elongated strips ofrelatively narrow width, such coverings being employed as carpetrunners, matting and for other purposes. It is, however, frequentlydesirable to transversely unite such relatively narrow strips or sheetsto cover areas of greater width. This has presented difiiculties withconventional constructions in that the sheets generally have no means ofinterconnection so that each must be tacked or otherwise adhered to anunderlying surface or provided with overlapping tapes, strips or otherjoining means. These conventional modes of uniting adjacent strips orsheets of floor covering are not generally satisfactory since the regionof union is frequently such that moisture and other foreign materialscan pass therebetween and/ or overlying strips at the joints preventsecuring the appearance of a single continuous expanse of the material.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention overcomes theabove-described defects by providing an improved floor coveringconfiguration which is so made that like portions of the material may bejoined in transverse relationship such that the individual strips orsheets are retained against lateral displacement, moisture and otherforeign material are prevented from penetrating through the region ofunion, and the appearance of a single continuous expanse of the joinedsheets or strips is provided. These advantages are achieved in theconstruction of this invention by having the floor covering providedwith a continuous rib extending continuously longitudinally along onemargin and a ridge extending longitudinally along the opposite marginwith said rib having a recess on its underside of shape and dimensionscomplementary to those of the said ridge so that separate sheets orstrips of the material can be placed in juxtaposed interfittingrelationship of the ribs and ridges of the several sheets.

Preferably, the lower outer surface of the rib adjacent the edge of eachsheet terminates above the lower surface of the said sheet a distanceequal to the thickness of that sheet. Furthermore, the sheet in itspresently preferred form comprises a plurality of longitudinallyextending ribs generally inverted V-shaped in cross section each ofwhich has an inner recess of inverted V- shape in cross section and withthe longitudinal distance from the vertical center plane of the marginalridge to the vertical median plane of the adjacent rib equal to3,520,761 Patented July 14, 1970 the spacing of the latter from thevertical median plane of the next adjacent rib so that the region ofunion of adjacent ribs does not interrupt the pattern of the surface ofthe sheet material.

Other novel features and advantages of the invention will be apparentfrom the following description of the presently preferred embodimentdescribed with reference to the accompanying drawing forming a part ofthis application.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a fragmentary isometric viewof the presently preferred embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary transverse cross section to an enlarged scalethrough a sheet of the material shown in FIG. 1 illustrating theinterlock of that sheet or strip with adjacent sheets or strips whichare indicated by dotdash lines.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Floor covering made in accordance with thepresently preferred embodiment of this invention comprises a sheet ofelastomeric material which is extruded or rolled into elongatedconfiguration with interlocking complementarily shaped surfaces adjacenteither longitudinally extending edge. As shown in FIG. 1, such a sheet10 is provided with a plurality of longitudinally extending raised ribs11 spaced transversely from one another. These ribs are of invertedV-shape in cross section with their apices flattened. The lower or innersides of the ribs preferably have channels 12 of inverted V-shapeconfiguration formed on the underside of the sheet.

One longitudinally extending margin or edge of the sheet 10 is providedwith a raised ridge 14 having an upper surface shaped to interfit withthe recesses 12 of the ribs 11 and with the vertical central plane ofthe ridge spaced from the vertical central plane of the adjacent recess12 an amount equal to the spacing of the latter from the next adjacentrecess 12. The longitudinally extending marginal portion of the sheet 10opposite that provided with the ridge 14 has a longitudinally extendingrib the outer sidewall 16 of which terminates above the base of thesheet 10 a distance equal to the thickness of that sheet. This marginalrib has a recess 15 identical with the recesses 12 except for theaforementioned shortened length of its outer sidewall.

The manner of employing the floor covering material of this invention intransversely united relationship of separate sheets or strips thereof isapparent from FIG. 2. As shown therein, the ridge 14 of one length ofthe floor covering is disposed within the recess 15 of the marginal ribextending along the edge of an adjacent sheet, shown in phantom to theleft of the principal sheet in FIG. 2, and the marginal rib 11 oppositethe ridge 14 is placed in superposed interfitting relationship of itsrecess 15 with the ridge 14 on the next adjacent sheet of material asshown to the right of FIG. 2. This interlocking of adjacent strips orsheets can continue indefinitely to provide a transversely continuoussheet of any desired width from separately formed narrower strips orsheets and with the entire transverse expanse retained againstinadvertent separation by the interlocking action of the interfittingridges and recesses. Displacement of the interlocked sheets can befurther enhanced by the application of an adhesive to the ridges 14 andthe adjacent inner surfaces of the recesses or channels 15.

The preferred embodiment of the invention has been shown as having theentire transverse width of the sheet 10 provided with equally spacedlongitudinally extending ribs 11. It will be apparent that when thisconstruction is employed a strip of lesser width can be readily formedfrom a wider strip and the same interlocking relationship with adjacentstrips achieved by severing the material of the sheet along the wall ofa rib 11 at an elevation above the base equal to the thickness of thebase so as to provide an outer rib with shortened wall in the form shownat the right-hand margin of FIG. 1. The advantage of the interlockingrelationship of the new floor covering may, however, be achieved withoutforming the entire transverse width of the strip with uniformly spacedribs as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, it being noted that the improvedinterlocking provided by this invention can be achieved with material inwhich the ridge adjacent one marginal edge and the rib adjacent theopposite margin for cooperation with a ridge on an adjacent sheetconstitute the only projections from the base of the sheet so that theintervening transverse area is planar or provided with any desiredpattern.

The fioor covering of this invention may be formed from any suitablematerial, preferably elastomeric in nature, with plasticized polyvinylchloride being one specific example of material which lends itselfreadily to rapid economic production of the flooring through extrusionor roller die forming of the material with the interlocking ridge andrib construction. It will be apparent that the invention is not limitedto the use of plasticized polyvinyl chloride nor to the other details ofthe preferred embodiment and that adaptations or modifications of theinvention may be made within the spirit and scope of the appendedclaims.

I claim:

1. A floor covering comprising an elongated sheet of elastomericmaterial having portions thereof defining generally parallel planarsurfaces one of which will lie flat upon a planar floor, a continuousrib projecting outwardly from the other of said surfaces of the sheetand extending longitudinally therealong at one margin thereof,

and a ridge extending longitudinally along the said other surface at theopposite margin, said rib being generally inverted V-shaped in crosssection with a flattened apex and having an inner recess invertedV-shape in cross section, the said ridge being inverted V-shape in crosssection with dimensions complementary to those of said recess and withthe outer side surface extending as a smooth inclined plane to the saidone surface of the sheet, and the outer wall of said rib terminatingcoplanar with the said other surface of the sheet, whereby adjacentsheets of like nature may have the ridge on one interfitted within therecess beneath the rib on the adjacent sheet to provide a plurality ofinterconnected sheets which lie fiat upon a planar floor and have theappearance of a single continuous sheet.

2. A floor covering as defined in claim 1 wherein the said sheet isprovided with a plurality of ribs extending parallel with the horizontaldistance between the central vertical plane of said ridge and thevertical median plane of the adjacent rib equal to the spacing of thelatter from the vertical median plane of the next adjacent rib.

3. 'Floor covering as defined in claim 1 wherein the thickness of thewalls of said ribs is equal to the thickness of the sheet between saidribs.

4. Floor covering as defined in claim 1 wherein the said sheet is formedentirely of plasticized polyvinyl chloride.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 24,613 3/1959 Hageltorn161--99 DOUGLAS I. DRUMMOND, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 161-149

